Currently, vascular introducer sheaths used to access radial or femoral arteries suffer from various limitations. These include buckling or “roll-back” of the very distal tip upon entry into the skin. This is caused by a poor or abrupt transition or step between the introducer tip and the dilator that is inside the introducer to provide a transition from the guidewire to the sheath. Roll-back can also be caused by inadequate mechanical structure of the sheath tip.
Another limitation of current vascular introducer sheaths is the overall diameter of the introducer can be too large, such that excessive bleeding upon removal and/or arterial spasm during use can be caused. This limitation can be due to excessive wall thickness of the introducer related to current introducer construction methods.
A further limitation of current introducer is kinking or buckling during manipulation, insertion, or withdrawal of the catheter through the sheath or due to excessive cutaneous tissue thickness. The kinking and buckling of the introducer can be inherent in the construction and design of currently available introducer.